So time for another infrequent C - Blog. Birthday was yesterday (yay for being an old bastard at 20!) and picked a damn good week to be on vacation from work (Illinois heatwave be damned) and have a girlfriend. So things are looking good for me so far at 20. ANYWAY...i've been pretty lowkey with things, no major game pickups since Max Payne, kind of messed around with WWE 12 (decent timekiller, nothing award - winning really) and returned Final Fantasy 13 - 2 cause I didn't play it at all besides one time.

But to the "gaming" part. I picked up DC Universe Online (against my better judgment for having a crap internet connection) and HOOKED. I'm not big on MMORPG's or even super hero things, but I like this game so far. I'm a level 12 Tech Hero with Dual Pistol and Rifle proficiency and fire - based powers (not like any of that gets me any action with the ladies) and still clueless on how to play. But it's a fun game for me and it helps me wane back into actually playing online. Also got NCAA Football 11 cause...well I need filler games and I like football. Road To Glory is cool, but I don't like that I can't change the quarter lengths. Irritates me so much that I only get 5 minute quarters to put up godlike stats. But everytime I score...STRAIGHT TO THE MASCOT. I laugh everytime I go celebrate with them, so utterly entertaining. FYI: Got NCAA 11 for PS3 and DCUO for PS3 as well.

Continuing with my PS3 news (nothing for 360, sorry 360 fanboys. Been meaning to get my PS3 library somewhat expanded), I picked up PS plus as well. I was skeptical on it because of how much Sony's been getting hacked lately, but figured why not. The perks of getting free games and other stuff are nice and the discounts are also great. I don't think i'll regret it at all.

It's been awhile since i've done a C - Blog. I haven't had much to talk about since i'm a fairly stagnant when it comes to my gaming variety. Regardless, here's what i've played in the past few months.

I've picked up Trials Evolution and I have a HUGE love/hate relationship with it. I love it cause it's so addicting and requires minimal thinking for me at times, plus with all the downloadable tracks available I can find other unique tracks to go along with. What I hate about it is that for something so simple, it's extremely rage inducing for me. Whenever a person on my friends list has a faster time than me, I strive to beat it no matter what. And if I don't get it, I get mad. When I get mad, I try to beat it...for over half an hour. So....yeah.

I also tried out Arkham City. I'll admit it was hard for me to fully commit to playing it because I never played Arkham Asylum fully cause my younger brother had rented it for like 3 days and it wasn't what i'm accustomed to. But once I got into the fleshier parts, I loved it. Also tried Final Fantasy 13 - 2, not sure how to feel about it and I haven't played it since Gamefly sent me it a month ago. And no, I didn't get Diablo (I can't do dungeon crawlers, Dark Souls taught me that (if that even counts as one)).

Anyway, i'll get to one of my 2 reasons for this latest post. I got Max Payne 3 after giving up the abysmal Operation Raccoon City, Mass Effect 2, Soul Calibur 4, and...something else. 4 words: Game of the year. This game blew my mind to Tibet and back. The story, while shying away from it's usual roots, held up very well. The gun inventory does make for an interesting thing, forcing you to consider whether to dual wield or to go in with a rifle or shotgun. Multiplayer is...interesting. The spawning is a little derpy at times, but it's very fast paced and can be addicting. The lack of comic book cutscenes is kind of missed, but games still have to implement new stuff. The graphics are very sublime, aiming reticle is the other thing that irritates me. When it's about the size of the dot above "i", pretty hard to aim at anything. Bullet Time is still the magical experience it still is, and kill cams are very entertaining to watch. So yeah, shut off your Diablo 3 and go get this game.

Reason #2: Everyone is talking (and complaining) about Black Ops 2. True CoD fans (you know, the ones who say CoD makes everything else irrelevant and nothing will ever be better than CoD) are clamoring and getting absolutely wet over this. Everyone else with a brain can quickly recognize something if you watched the trailer and read a preview about the game. It's said that you can take control of soldiers, tanks, choppers, and even jets to complete your mission. A purchase of GRAW 2 from 2 months ago will once again prove useful. You use drones, your teammates (soldiers), choppers, tanks, APC's, and (guess what) even jets to help complete your missions. Now if i'm not mistaken, that's essentially Ghost Recon, except in the more distant future. Is Treyarch running out of ideas or just lazy and decided to "borrow" a few ideas from Ubisoft? Seriously, did originality die with CoD 4? Maybe IW, Sledgehammer, Treyarch, and whoever else is doing CoD need to take a break from making CoD games. I think people can live with a year or 18 months without a new CoD game. Hell, it'd give them a chance to get some work on a new engine started and lose the engine that's been used for God knows how long.

There's something that has irked and irritated me for awhile since I have had the thought about this. There's been subcatagories of gamers whom are labeled or associate with: hardcore gamers (the guys/girls who take the game way too seriously, more often than not are part of the MLG) and casual gamers (people who play for fun, not competition). If I applied these silly labels upon myself, I would be a casual gamer. I'll refrain from talking about my experience with the MLG as i've already done so in my last post.

The schism that divides console gamers has always been evident due to fanboys who've taken their love for their respective consoles too far. While i'm not saying it's wrong to like a certain console, it's just overkill to go out and say another console is total crap compared to yours. I've had a version of the Xbox 360 for a combined 7 years and only got a Playstation 3 9 months ago, and I have yet to take a side. I enjoy using both consoles because both have their perks and uses. While I have enjoyed Halo and Gears of War on the 360, I got to play franchises such as Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance, and Metal Gear Solid. While I may use my 360 more than my PS3, I really don't view it as my favorite. The PC/Console war is also pretty evident as well. PC's have always been able to do much more than consoles, but with technology constantly improving companies can advance and input much more than what we can imagine into consoles. The problem with consoles still resides with game developers can't always gain instantaneous feedback when something goes wrong. As where with PC, they could just do so during a beta period for a game where a program could detect a glitch or a fault within and alert the developers. But because i've never extensively done PC gaming, I can't really give an unbiased explanation or argument.

But to go back to the labels of gamers, why can't we all just simply be gamers? We don't need dividing lines, we don't need the individuality we would crave in society, we need to be just one community. While i'm aware that this ideally won't happen as long as fanboys are existent, there's still some leeway being made. A few people i've come across actually agreed with how being loyal to one console is a silly and childish idea. And the majority just scolded me when I said I wouldn't take a side in what is the better console. I guess it's an inevitable thing being seen as a outsider when you have 3 major consoles (if you count the Wii) and refuse to take sides. I'd just like to have people see that we need to gain a complete identity as a whole rather than groups and even smaller cliques, we cannot continue to do so. To quote a very familiar lyric from Bob Marley, "One love, one heart. Let's get together and feel alright."

I've found with the past few months with my gaming that i've felt almost drained and rather uninspired and minimally entertained, I'm not sure if it's something else or just a lack of variety with my gaming choices, but I feel gaming is becoming almost stale to me. In a period of where you either play Call of Duty, Halo, whatever is made popular or nothing I feel I can't find a division between what I want and think I need to play.

The only game I waited for was Operation Raccoon City and that wasn't fulfilling of what I was hoping for. I didn't buy into the MW 3 or ME 3 hype, having lost all interest in CoD during MW 2 and losing interest in Mass Effect when I couldn't draw satisfaction from playing it. I feel like the last game I truly got satisfaction and enjoyment in playing was Metal Gear Solid 4. It's not like I don't have a good taste in gaming, it's almost like everything that was worth playing i've already played. It's almost like in the case of Brett Favre, he had accomplished all he possibly could as a quarterback and yet he kept going on for as long as he did. I'm not saying i'm some big shot gamer who's been there and done that, i'm far from it. I just feel that I haven't got anything else to prove to myself in terms of my gaming.

The most glaring thing I found is that i've almost entirely stopped playing online multiplayer and stuck to singleplayer. I think that I resent the community that both Xbox and Playstation both have. Both are not friendly by any angle or mean, believing that by being a 7th prestige or attaining Forerunner rank and beating you by X number of kills is a means of superiority over all gamers. I find this not to be the case, as gaming is a means of entertainment, not a means of domination. Not once have I felt a sense of superiority over another gamer just because I did good for one match. There's no point, anyone can be as good as the next person in whatever facet they wish to. I experienced this when I half - heartedly and stupidly tried to train with "MLG" Halo players. The "better" players almost shun the weaker at times, and denying an offer to a team is seen as a slap to the face. I learned I couldn't entirely devote myself to gaming, there's other things that take priority. I also learned and am certain that I will eventually stop gaming.

I find that I can't keep gaming forever because I will eventually block time for it out when it comes time for a career, a family, other things. To say and to even accept this at 19 seems more like an act of being an adult or maybe insanity, I haven't entirely grasped the scope of my plans/future. If my children start gaming, I won't stop them from doing so since I did the same thing practically since I was able to. I can't entirely say that I will try to cherish however long I keep gaming, but it's something that I have to thank for keeping me away from bad influences, bad decisions, and bad people.